A glance on National Assembly Election in Vietnam- 123docz.net

Chapter 2 National Assembly Election in Vietnam

3.1. A glance on National Assembly Election in Vietnam

3.1.1. Anticipating voter needs:

The representative function is at the very centre of deputy‘s reason to exist. A qualities deputy is a person who implements two things well. One is making voter satisfaction and the other is working efficiency in Parliament. Making voter satisfied is to implement representative function. A deputy when works in Parliament must do three functions. First function is representation for citizens in deciding the important issues of the nation. Second one is legislative function and last is supervision and oversight function. Making voter satisfaction becomes the most important things because voter finally is person who decides a deputy re-elect or not. The voter will vote for whomever they think is most likely to meet their hopes and aspirations. To meet their hopes and aspiration, the candidates must understand their needs, their interested field.

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From coverage of vote-candidate meetings in the press in XII Legislature‘

Election, the main issues that voter are interested in are categorized in following group:

First is socio-economy‘ issues. In 2002 the Department for Peoples Wills and Petition within Official of National Assembly receives about 200000 complaints. Of these 20000, about 40% concern land and housing issues and about 25% court case. Other issues identified include high inflation, low wages of officer, workless.

Second is in education. The media recently post much news, articles related with complaint of citizens in educational reform. Many complaints are

―overload study‖, ―lack of skill labor‖, ―increase education‘ fee‖. Government has many actions to response but the result far further expectation of citizens.

Third is in administration system. The public administration system is commonly regarded as inefficient and as constituting a bottleneck for development of the market economy as well as for efficient service delivery to the citizens and the rule of law. Roles and functions are not clearly defined, administrative procedures cumbersome and decision making overly centralized. Professional competence, in particular of administrative civil servants, is low and contributes to low quality and efficiency in service delivery. The bureaucratic practices in combination with low competence and very low salaries are also considered to be major factors behind the widespread corruption. And ―absolutely power born absolutely corruption‖ is another reason of serious corruption in Vietnam.

Last is in legal system reform. Vietnam has many laws. Many laws were out- of-date even they are approved few month ago. This affects much on citizens‘

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78 live and work.

Although many issues are rising, key issue is quality of candidates. The qualities of candidates are also set out in some detail, with virtue, talent and ability commonly highlighted as being important. In the voter‘ perception, good deputy are person who ―listen to people‖, ―do their promises‖

3.1.2. Marketing research in politics

The importance of doing research rests with the notion that not all products can be sold to all consumers. Companies use marketing research to determine what to stress to different consumer groups. Politicians are no different. In other country, there are many different types of polls that candidates rely upon, including benchmark surveys, trial heat surveys, tracking polls, cross-selection and panel surveys and exit polls.

Marketing research in politics is major done by three following group.

First are government and its member-organization, international partner.

Second are current deputy and other committee of National Assembly. Last one includes other institutions, functional organizations, voters and candidates.

a. Market research by government:

There are three Parliamentary Development Projects in Vietnam recently:

1. Projects ―Strengthening the capacity of the Office of the Vietnam National Assembly‖.

The Administration of the Swedish Riksdag (the Riksdag Administration) and the Office of the National Assembly of Vietnam (ONA) agreed in 1998 to

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undertake a three-year program of cooperation. The project constitutes the first direct co-operation between the National Assembly in Vietnam and a Parliament of another country. The project is also the first long-term cooperation with another parliament for the Swedish Riksdag, and is therefore unique in terms of parliamentary exchange.

The overall objective of the co-operation is to enhance the democratic processes and the principle of rule of law in Vietnam, with a specific long- term objective to strengthen the constitutional role and functions of the National Assembly.

The immediate objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity of the ONA to provide efficient support to the National Assembly in the area of supervision and public information. In order to reach these objectives a number of activities have taken place in Vietnam and Sweden during the project period.

There are two expected results of the project. First, the project shall strengthen the skills and capacity of the professional staff and members of the National Assembly in supervision over law implementation. Second, the public and media shall gain increased access to information about the National Assembly role and responsibilities, and in so doing increase public knowledge, interest, and insight into the decision making process.

2. Project ―Strengthening Capacity of People‘s Elected Bodies in Vietnam‖

VIE/02/2007.

The project is supported by the UNDP, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the Canadian International Development Agency. The primary goal of this

assistance is to enhance the representative, and legislative capacity of the parliament.

The project provides its support to the National Assembly through activities oriented to produce impact on the following areas:

 Improvement of the Law Making Function:

This involves support to improve legislative drafting and appraisal, to strengthen legislative research and information support provided to individual members of parliament (MPs), improvement of rules and lawmaking process, as well as support to the policy debate on a series of laws related to local government and elections of local deputies.

 Enhancement of the Representative Function

In this area the project will facilitate the development of Provincial MPs delegations – Constituency offices of members of the parliament at provincial level-, with the intention to improve relationships of deputies with their voters and constituencies. Additionally assistance will also be provided in the area of public consultations and management of petitions by the public to the Parliament and its members.

 Capacity Development

Through this component, the project is supporting the creation and establishment of a ―Resource Center for Elected Representatives‖ – a training and knowledge management facility, flexible in organization and management, non-bureaucratic and results oriented that is aimed at enhancing capacities and knowledge of individual elected representatives both at

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national and at local levels. In addition a significant effort will also be made to support parliamentary consultations and debates on policy issues such as WTO accession, gender mainstreaming, HIV/AIDS, public administration reform, parliamentary work on the fight against corruption. Finally, the project will also support the enhancement of capacities for the administration and management of parliamentary affairs.

3. Project ―Strengthening the capacities of the National Assembly and People‘s Councils in Vietnam in examination, decision and oversight of State Budget‖ (VIE/02/2008).

The project is supported by the UNDP, Swiss Development Cooperation, the Department for International Development (DfID) and the Canadian International Development Agency. The Project seeks to support the capacity building of the CEBA(Committee for Economic and Budget Affairs of the National Assembly) and its corresponding committees in the provincial People‘s Councils in performing their budget examination, decision and oversight functions and boosting fiscal transparency and accountability. In such a context, technical support is also provided to MOF(Ministry of Finance) and SAV(State Audit of Vietnam) that is part of the Budget Examination, Decision and Oversight Co-operation Task Force to be formed.

This Project also provides a broad framework of intervention for fiscal decentralization initiatives at central and local levels.

Specifically, the Project will assist the concerned agencies to achieve the following outcomes:

Outcome 1: Improved capacity of the Legislature for budget examination and decision as well as evaluation of development policies/programs:

Outcome 2: Strengthened budget oversight capacity of and the provision of fiscal information to the Legislature standardized and regularized.

Outcome 3: Strengthened capacity of MOF and SAV to support the Legislature in its budget decision and oversight function.

b. Research of current deputies

Current deputies often use secondary date in study the concern of citizens. But in common, it‘s too late to solve because the consequence is so serious.

c. Other institution and individuals:

Almost of candidates are done researches of local socio-economy issues before electoral campaign occurred. Main research relates with legal system, electoral system and the role of a deputy.

3.1.3. Voter behavior

There hasn‘t got any official research in voter‘ behavior in Vietnam up to now. From the secondary information that the student collected, we have a picture of voter‘ behavior as following:

Habit of voting: one person vote for whole entire household. In some remote border communes, the ballot was brought to field where local citizens work.

In fact the number of Vietnamese actually voting was small; the total number of votes cast was relatively high, resulting in the official turnout figure of 99.64% per cent.

The way to evaluate a candidates: individuals and illogical. In common, they often take person who he known.

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The way voter gets information. There are three ways for voter collecting information: through government-voter communication channel; voter- candidate communication channel; and voter collection by himself/herself.

Firstly, we have a view on government-voter communication channel.

The government uses a whole range of fora and media to get its message across. These take the form of official voter education meetings, involving officials and members of the electorate. Based on official claims, it would appear that quite a large number of people attend.

Apart from official meetings, the government seeks to get its message across on radio and television--30 to 60 minutes a day and via the provincial/city nationwide press. In the latter, there are regular reports of election preparations. Election legislation and a centrally prepared question-and- answer column about the election were also serialized ahead of the 2002 election. Beyond the press, vast quantities of other election -related literature is also published. This includes posters and slogans, displayed at prominent road junctions and on electricity posts. Tape recordings containing voter education material are distributed, presumably for broadcasting on the street.

The government used the Internet as a way of getting its message across, with the launch of an election Web site www.baucuquochoi.gov.vn. The web site included information on election legislation and on the candidates. Although Internet access is increasing in urban Vietnam, the official Web site probably played a relatively minor role in election communication, compared with more traditional methods.

A large part of what the government is trying to impart is heavily factual, focusing particularly on election procedure. This includes serialization of

election legislation and the very extensive question-and-answer column cited above, which runs to nearly 200 questions. Voters are also bombarded with what is described as "essential information" such as what they should do if they find they are not on the voter list or how many people must attend candidate selection meetings for them to be valid. While this information is depicted as being important, the reality is that most people are provided with far more information than they can possibly digest or want. In this respect, it would appear that the purpose of providing such information is less about informing the public per se and more about asserting the legal and procedural basis of the election in order to place it beyond reproach.

Secondly, we have look on the candidate-voter meeting. There does not seem to be much scope for voters to cross-examine candidates on their program, or ask them where they stand on particular issues. From the perspective of the candidates, this can be seen in their presentation of their electoral program, with candidates raising issues ranging from school fees to increasing investment in the countryside to strengthening the legal framework and tackling problems such as prostitution and drug taking.

In presenting their program, candidates commonly focused on issues they had experience of--as well as areas where they could potentially bring influence to bear. In many cases, the candidate program were turning into something of a shopping list, raising questions about whether they could make good any of their promises.

Looking at the voter-candidate meetings as a whole, they do not appear to be simply a charade. Candidates may not have faced tough questioning but they were required to stand up and project themselves to the electorate, while voters could and did raise awkward issues. The importance of this process as

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a way in which the state is able to keep an eye on issues that are causing discontent among the population should also not be underestimated; it serves the purpose of an early-warning system.

3.1.4. Market segmentation and targeting group:

The polling will be divided by province and city nationwide. There are 64 provinces and city nationwide, with 182 constituencies in whole country. In three consultative conferences, the structure of upcoming legislature includes representation of local and nation. The province and city nationwide have 331 candidates while nation have 165 candidates.

3.1.5. Candidate Positioning

Member of Parliaments in XI legislature don‘t pay much attention in position themselves. Well-known deputies are leader of party, government, state likely Senator Nguyen Tan Dung, Senator Nguyen Minh Triet, Senator Nguyen Van An.

Senator Nguyen Tan Dung was known as ―Economy‘ reformer‖ in an era of international economic integration.

Senator Duong Trung Quoc, Do Trong Ngoan come with brand ―positive‖,

―virtue‖, ―ability‘. Senator Nguyen Thi Viet Nhan is seen as ―elite‘

politician‖.

In XII Legislature, 498 members of parliament were selected but only 20% of those are recognized by public. It shows how the other deputy has not made people recognize them.

3.1.6. Image management

Image management is the most important things in electoral campaign. The deputy with the effective working in Parliament will build good image with voter. In XI Legislature there is idiom ―First Ngoan, second Tran, third Lan, fourth Quoc‖. Four senators mentioned above are senator Do Trong Ngoan, deputy from Bac Giang province; senator Nguyen Ngoc Tran, senator from An Giang; senator, coming from Dack Nong and senator Duong Trung Quoc, representation for Dong Nai province.

3.1.7. Marketing strategy

In XII legislature candidates use marketing in someway to gain comparative advantage in electoral campaign. Mr. Dang Van Khoa is a good example.

Many his activities were public. During the election, he launched series of news/articles to label himself as ―senator Khoa‖. ―Senator Khoa‖ represents

‗for people‘, with ‗tough supervision actions‘. His newspaper‘s campaign was pushed out consistence, timely. He also spends a lot of time for meeting with voters. He managed a supportive campaign in internet by many normal voters.

But he resigned the election before the result of second consultative conference announced. Other example is campaign of Dang Hung Vo and campaign of Nguyen Dang Hung. In same way, they launched newspaper‘s campaign to support their self-nominated.

These candidates are in self-nominated group. The first consultative conference finished with a list of 1156 candidates. Of these 223 applicants nominated themselves as candidates. HCM city has the largest number of self-nominees with 101 candidates, followed by Hanoi with 52. Only 30 candidates remained in the result of the third consultation conference. Only one candidate is elected at Nghe An constituencies.

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A glance on National Assembly Election in Vietnam

The marketing process by Donimic Wring